The Rockies are looking for a reliever, tweets SI's Jon Heyman. Colorado has mostly been subtracting lately, letting Brad Hawpe and Randy Flores go for nothing, but at 4.5 games out in the wild card Baseball Prospectus gives them a 10.7% playoff shot. Heyman believes the Rockies would probably settle for a "change-of-scenery type" reliever, with the good ones blocked. The team's Rafael Betancourt deal, struck in July of last year, could be the model in my opinion. At present, Betancourt is battling an abdominal strain.
Which relievers are still available, with the deadline looming tomorrow? My speculative list includes Brandon League, David Aardsma, Aaron Heilman, Mark Hendrickson, Todd Coffey, Pedro Feliciano, Chan Ho Park, Will Ohman, Brian Tallet, Joel Peralta, George Sherrill, Koji Uehara, Manny Parra, Mike Gonzalez, D.J. Carrasco, and Miguel Batista. I'm operating under the assumption the Blue Jays' relievers will not be dealt. The Rockies could also turn to free agents such as Brendan Donnelly or David Riske.
half the moves the Rockies are rumored to make are complete bs. Why would they let Flores walk only to add a reliever? Doesn’t make sense, so I have to think its not accurate. Also saw a recent rumor that Spilborghs would be a good addition to some AL club (can’t remember who mentioned it). The chances that Spilly gets past a NL waiver claim is zero. 1) the rox wouldn’t put him on waivers and 2) almost every NL club in contention would be willing to pay his cheap salary.Unless it comes from Tracy Ringolsby, I don’t buy anything said about the rockies.
Why wouldn’t the Rockies put Spilborghs on waivers? Clubs put almost their entire roster on waivers to help disguise any moves they might be trying to make. Spilborghs has likely already been placed on waivers, claimed, and pulled back.
As for why they’d let Flores go and still look for a reliever, they probably didn’t like his high BB/9 and assumed, like most, that his nice ERA was a mirage. They could certainly still be looking for relief help, especially someone who can get out both right-handed and left-handed hitters. There’s no reason to think they wouldn’t add a reliever, especially if it’s someone who won’t cost them anything really.
The Rockies are notoriously cheap. They aren’t going to let someone walk, cover their salary, then pay for someone to be the exact same player. The Rockies will simply use relievers from the minors, like they are with Reynolds, Deduno, and (gulp) Morales. I don’t see anyone on that list that is much better than Flores.
Regarding Spilly, maybe they would put him on waivers only to pull him back, but thats assumed for every player, and I guess I wasn’t correct with the above. What I meant was they wouldn’t put him on waivers with the intention of actually moving him. If he did hit waivers, he would probably be claimed by the Diamond backs or Pirates or someone else low on the pole because pretty much 100% of the teams out there would love to add him on his current salary.
This is dead on. If there was a relief pitcher of some quality…sure, but they aren’t looking at just warm bodies to go out there, the Rox aren’t that desperate, as they did just release Flores…for nothing.
“The Rockies are notoriously cheap…”
Tell that to Todd Helton and Mike Hamption.
“Cheap” doesn’t matter when you’re talking about the pro-rated version of the league minimum or thereabouts. If they’re trying to catch lightning in a bottle on low-budget reliever for the pennant push, and had lost confidence in Flores, who was a lefty specialist anyway. They’d probably like someone they can use against lefties and righties.
As for the Spilborghs thing, there’s no point in even arguing it. Sure they wouldn’t intend to move him, there’s no reason to, but why are we even bothering to discuss a rumor you think you might’ve seen somewhere but can’t remember where/when?
Are you a Rockies fan? Do you feel the need to respond to random comments on players and teams that you have no interest in just to nitpick at the words of posters? I know exactly why I brought Spilborghs rumor up, because I’m interested in the Rockies and Spilborghs and for the record I know when and where the original rumor was. It was just yesterday or Saturday and it was right here on this website. I just didn’t remember who the author was at that moment. Unlike you, I don’t know everything about everything apparently (which by the way, using contracts from 10 years ago to contradict the Rockies cheapness was brilliant when everyone knows those 2 contracts are actually primary reasons for their now notorious cheapness).
PS. The article was by Richard Durrett of ESPN who thought the Rangers could look at Ryan Spilborghs as RH help. Its on the second page of articles. The point remains whether you want to argue it or not is up to you, that no way in the world would an AL team (let alone a team as far on the waiver rankings as the Rangers) have a shot at Spilborghs on a team friendly contract. He’d be claimed by an NL team in a heart beat.
I’m a Rockies fan. I don’t think they’re cheap. I actually think they’re pretty smart about how they spend their money, and smart doesn’t always equal cheap.
I think they are smart, and cheap. They have made some good choices, but stuff like letting Jamie Carroll and Kaz Matsui go in 2008 in favor of unproven and inexpensive Jayson Nix was a bit of a cheap move that wasn’t necessarily a strategic move.
Colorado’s Ticket Sales are up almost 15% over last two years, one of which we made the playoffs. Over the last few years the Rockies have spent quite a few dollars locking up players like Street, Tulowitzki, Jimenez, Ianetta etc. The Rockies will spend, just not overpay for stars. Note: THey are paying almost 2 mil to Hawpe to play on another team, because they wanted him to be able to play. The rox were in on Haren and Berkman, and a low level releiver is not in anyway out of the question. Flores was let go to make room for Reynolds, even though Reynolds coul’ve been called up in September they needed him then and knew FLores was worthless. And as for letting Nix takeover at 2B, the rockies arent always smart, but O’Dowd has a knack for prospects and we have the makings of a GREAT team. This year is only the beginning
Not much help on the list above anyway and the ones that look like possiblities even come with price tags. Aardsma back to his normal pre 2009 self again, Donkey failed in Pittsburgh earlier, but maybe can put a month healthy together with his repaired arm again this September. Shaky Gonzalez will require them to take on 6M next year and what’s left of 6M this year, so he is out for his health risk and he has been “shaky” anyway in the past when depended upon. League might be the only one that could help, but would figure he would have been swapped before the 7/31 deadline if the price was right for him.
I don’t have the stat with me but Koji has given up only about 2 or so runs since coming back healthy. That’s pretty much the whole second half.
Sorry. To be exact, Uehara has given up exactly 2 runs in the second half in quite a bit of appearances.
Please take Uerhara, we to have something to show for that 10 million.
As a rockies fan I’d be dissapointed if Spilly left. he’s a massively awesome clubhouse presence and is a fan favorite. Oh and he costs nothing.
As for relievers. Flores never really got a chance with the rox and they probably figured they didn’t need him. And yes his k/bb ratio stunk.
I have no clue who we’d go get right now although we did just get Luis Ayala